STARS AND STRIPES | Sept. 3 – First Flown in Battle

This day was the first, in 1777, when the Stars and Stripes flag was flown in battle, at Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware. 

Patriot General William Maxwell ordered the Stars and Stripes banner to be held aloft as his infantry and cavalry met British and Hessian troops. 

Alas, the rebels were rebuffed and they had to retreat to Brandywine Creek, Pennsylvania, to rejoin General George Washington’s main army. 

Earlier in 1777, on June 14, the Continental Congress had resolved that “the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white” and that “the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” The national flag, was based on the Grand Union flag, a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of 13 red and white stripes but had a Union Jack in the canton. This flag was the same as the East India Company flag. 

Where did the new 1777 canton of stars on a blue background come from? By legend, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross designed the stars and the original circle of 13 stars on a blue background. However, this legend is disputed on several grounds, one of which that it didn't surface until years later.

The legend may have been created to disguise the changing of the six-pointed stars to the five-pointed stars on General George Washington's coat of arms. While Washington was decidedly aristocratic in his love of his family arms, his allies tried to play this down to establish his democratic credentials. 

Washington's arms were a legacy from an ancestor who fought at the Battle of Crécy and was awarded with a knighthood, through Lawrence Washington, a one-time don at Brasenose College, Oxford, whose job was to ferret out dissidents under Charles I and who lost his comfortable parish living when Cromwell and his regicides toppled the old order. 

Rev. Lawrence Washington's wife sent their two sons to Virginia to make a better life for themselves than their parents could guarantee. 

In 1818, Congress stipulated that the 13 original stripes be restored and that only stars be added to represent new states. On June 14, 1877, the first Flag Day observance was held on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the flag. In 1949, Congress designated June 14 as Flag Day.

STARS: Douglas Arms in France (Updated May 30, 2018)

The Sibiville arms. The timing
makes sense only as influence
from Douglas to Sibiville. Vice 
versa would be of more interest. 

I have been searching for the origins of the stars in the Stars and Stripes. I have gotten as far as the Douglas and Moray coats of arms and Scottish ancestors of George Washington.

George Washington's ancestors got their name from the town of Washington in Durham County in the north of England. Washington is today a suburb of Newcastle in the metropolitan County of Tyne and Wear.

The gules (red) mullets and bars on the Washington arms are, I have asserted, a probable echo of and homage to the Douglas arms, with Scotland's St Andrew's azure (blue) switched by the English knight to England's St George's gules (red).

The first member of the Washington family to take the name Wessyngton/Washington was Sir William de Hertburn. One source says, with little backup, he was of French origin. Another says, with great detail, that he was of Scottish origin.

In late September 2016 I have been in France and have been hunting around among the étoiles in French coats of arms to see if the Douglas or Washington arms are connected with families in France. Heraldry was largely brought over from Normandy by William the Conqueror, and I thought that a search of French heraldry records might produce something useful. The only museum in France devoted exclusively to heraldry (science héraldique) is the Musée des Blasons in Saint Jean Devalériscle near Alès north of Montpelier. Rather than make this trip, I relied heavily on what is available in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and French heraldic websites.

Looking among the arms of the various communes in France, I find that 754 of them have étoiles in them. I have looked at each one of them and have picked out coats of arms that look like the Douglas or Washington arms. I am left with 30 coats of arms in my to-look-at list. I am mainly interested in the older arms of Douglas, i.e., a row of three argent (silver) stars in a row in chief (across the top), without the heart that was added after the death of the Good Sir James Douglas.

The connection could be interesting whichever way the influence goes, assuming there is a connection that is not just accidental:

1. What would be most interesting would be a French commune that had a knight living in it with stars in his coat of arms. This could be a clue to why the Douglas (and Moray) arms include stars. The five-pointed silver stars are of special interest because these are the stars in the Douglas arms.
2. Less interesting, the Douglas arms have been used by French communes as the basis for its arms because of some association of descendants of the Good Sir James Douglas. One such descendant – Archibald Douglas, the 4th Earl of Douglas – fought in France and in 1424 was given the title of Duc de Touraine (in the Tours region).
3. There may be a common thread influencing both the emergence of the Douglas family and the commune.

I end up with three interesting groupings of Douglas-related arms by canton (county):

• Ardennes (on the border with Belgium, east of Pas de Calais) – Amblimont, Doux and Lametz. 
• Corrèze (interior southwest France, the Dordogne) – Beaumont (gold stars), Margerides (1986), St Remy and St Fereole.
• Pas de Calais (northwest France near Belgium; Flanders territory) – Leulinghem (red stars and stripes) and Sibiville (post-Sir James Douglas heart included in the arms, so clearly the link is from Douglas to Sibiville). The Comtes de Douglas apparently had lived for generations as seigneurs of Sibiville in 1747.

Here are members of the Douglas family who have lived in France and whose existence might have been the reason for the Douglas stars in a commune coat of arms:

Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas, Duke of Touraine, buried with his son, Sir James Douglas in Saint Gatien's Cathedral, Tours, following the Battle of Verneuil 1424. Archibald was named Duke of Touraine before his death in 1424, in gratitude for the assistance to the future Charles VII of France by the Scottish army led by Archibald, killed at the Battle of Verneuil in August 1424.

Archibald Douglas, Earl of Wigtown (d. 1438), was awarded the title of Comte de Longueville along with his son William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas (d. 1440).  Known by French chroniclers as Victon (after Wigton), he also received the honorary title of Seigneurie (Lord) of Dun-le-Roi, a Marshal of France.

Other Douglases in France: 

Adam Douglas, governor of castle and town of Tours, 27 May 1424. He was a cousin of Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas

Antoine Douglas, chevalier, seigneur de Richagnard en Bugey et de Ployart en Picardie, Governor of Montreal Chateau

Charles Archambault Douglas (Sir), Count of Suze, Captain King's Infantry Regiment

Charles Douglas, Lord of Arrancy–built Ferme du Maipas

Charles Guillaume Douglas (Captain), Drummond regiment

Charles Joseph Douglas was appointed Governor of Saint-Claude in 1751.

Charles Joseph Douglas, Lord of Mépillat, Chiloup and Hautepierre acquired Montreal for 60,000 pounds 13 Apr 1757

Charles, Comte de Douglas, syndic of the nobility of Bugey

d'Hortore Douglas (Captain) in the regiment de Languedoc

Francois-Prosper Douglas, Chevalier de Douglas, (21 Feb. 1725-26 April 1781)

Gabriel, Esquire, Lord of Saint-Jacques, c. 1668

Guillaume Douglas (c.1420),

James Charles Douglas-Whyte, died 3 Apr 1885, Finistère, Bretagne, France

Jean Douglas (c1450), son of Guillaume, and Alain Douglas, son of Jean, Seigneur de Prastulo/Pratulot and Châteauneuf

John Douglas, Esquire, Lord of Chateauneuf, c.1550

Joseph Hyacinthe Duglas Arrancy admitted knight justice to the priory of France, born Feb. 11, 1664, baptized May 26 1664 in the parish church of the diocese of Laon Arrancy.

Leonel, Esquire, Lord of Ployart, c. 1632.

Louis Douglas, Lord of Ployart, c. 1567.

Marc Douglas - Seigneur de Saint-Jacques, Seigneur de Longueuil, Seigneur d'Arrancy,  Seigneur de La Suze, Vicomte d'Amifontaine

Oliver Douglas, Esquire, Lord & Ployart Arrancy of Picardy (?Lord of Ployart) c.1550

Olivier Douglas, died 1558, son of Gilles.

Philippe Douglas, died 1763,

Valentine Douglas OSB, appointed Bishop of Laon, France, in 1580, in which position he served until his death on 5 Aug 1598; he built the Chateaux d'errancy.

William Douglas (Sir William) of Drumlanrig and William Douglas of Kinross helped Joan of Arc and were buried with a plaque in their memory in the nave of Orléans Cathedral Sainte-Crois.

Related Posts: Oxford Stars

DOUGLAS: Two Questions

Coats of arms used by the Douglas (L) and Moray-
Murray Clans. Both are descended from a Flemish 
settler, Freskin, and both use three five-pointed 
silver (argent) stars on a blue (azure) field.

My quest for origins of the stars in the American Stars and Stripes led me to the Douglas and Murray families (clans) of Scotland. 

Their shields of white (argent) stars on a blue (azure) background are the closest approximation to the white stars on a blue field in the canton of the Stars and Stripes.

George Washington's ancestor William de Hertburn in 1183 acquired the Wessyngton/Washington property in Durham County, near the Scottish border. He was of Scottish ancestry. The Washingtons moved to Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire much later, in 1539.

My theory has been that the Washington arms were modeled on the Douglas arms with the tincture changed from blue (azure) to red (gules), as the Washington estate was on the British (red cross of St. George) side of the border.

Arms showing St Andrews saltire (white X on blue
field) and St George cross (red + on white field).

My two questions are:

1. Is the blue field in the canton of the Stars and Stripes derived from the blue field of the St. Andrew's saltire via the Douglas arms? 

2. What might have inspired the five-pointed stars in the Douglas arms?

Related posts:

The Douglas Arms in France . Oxford Stars

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GW ARMS: Origins of the U.S. Flag?–Durham, Trinity, Selby

Washington arms, Trinity College, Oxford 
window, from Durham College chapel. 
Photo by JTMarlin.

Washington arms, in a window of
Selby Abbey church, Yorkshire.

September 16, 2012–I was in the Trinity College, Oxford Old Library last week, as part of the 2012 Oxford alumni weekend, celebrating my 50th year back and looking for links to trace the impact of Oxford alumni on the history of the United States. 

With the help of a note in the visitors' book, notes on display for visitors, and the Trinity library staff I found out the significance of the coat of arms shown at left above, which appears above a depiction of martyr Thomas Becket. The window does not, and should, appear in the wikipedia list of architectural occurrences of the Washington coat of arms, especially since it must be one of the most ancient surviving occurrences. I believe it is older than the Washington arms in the Selby Abbey Church window and that it is another clue pointing to the connection between George Washington's coat of arms and the Stars and Stripes on the U.S. flag.

Durham Quad, Trinity College, Oxford. The Old Library, 

where the Washington family coat of arms is displayed in a

window. The stained-glass window of Becket is  now in the 

medieval building above, at left, with the Trinity chapel at 

right (south). Photo taken on the Hall side.

These windows and its companions support the idea that the Stars and Stripes were inspired (or at least "informed by") the Washington coat of arms.

The stained-glass window is believed to have been installed originally in the old Durham College chapel, built 1406-08 somewhere on the site where Trinity College now stands. 

Trinity's front gate was about 10 yards outside the Oxford City wall that was once on Broad Street. Because Trinity was outside the Oxford City walls, Durham Abbey was able to assemble five acres for its college, which once included property now occupied by St John's.

Durham College was founded by the Bishop of Durham for the use of Benedictine monks of Durham Cathedral Priory. The land for Durham College was bought in 1291 (making it one of the earliest Oxford colleges), after monks had been sent to Oxford for a few years. The college was built around a single quadrangle, now known as Trinity's Durham Quad (see photo). The east side of the Durham Quad survives and includes the Old Library, which was built in 1417-1421 for the use of Durham College, and became the Fellows' Library at Trinity College. The windows believed to be from the Durham College chapel in the Old Library would most likely have been moved when the chapel was torn down at the end of the 17th century.  Parts of the Durham College buildings also survive on the west side of the quad, at either end of the 17th-century Hall.

Durham College was one of the victims of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. The ownership was voided and transferred to the Crown in March 1545, transferred to private owners in 1553, and  purchased by civil servant Sir Thomas Pope on February 20, 1555 (February 1554 under the calendar of the time) to found Trinity College barely two weeks later. Durham College was originally dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St Cuthbert, and the Trinity. Pope is believed to have taken the Trinity College name from the last element of the Durham dedication. Pope, a childless Catholic who felt contrition for having evicted many Catholics from their property (and enriched himself at the same time), hoped to be remembered in college prayers. His wishes are still honored, but the prayers may not be enough...

Both versions of the Washington family coat of arms above show three five-pointed red stars ("mullets" in heraldic parlance – they were supposed to represent spurs on the end of a knight's boots) over two horizontal red stripes ("bars" in heraldry) on a white field ("argent two bars gules in chief three mullets gules"). This is the coat of arms that is widely believed to have inspired the Stars and Stripes. The Washington coat of arms was certainly the basis for the design used since 1938 of the flag of the District of Columbia. A BBC documentary in 2002  featured Selby Abbey Church in North Yorkshire (not itself a cathedral, but modeled on the huge Durham Cathedral recently used for the first two Harry Potter movies). The Abbey Church shows the Washington coat of arms on one of its stained-glass windows. 

This belief in the connection between the Stars and Stripes and the Washington coat of arms dates back at least to the U.S. centennial year 1876, when in “Washington: A Drama in Five Acts,” a  verse play by Englishman Martin Farquhar Tupper, the character Benjamin Franklin says: “We, and not he – it was unknown to him – took up his coat of arms” to fashion a flag. His play was widely performed and the story was retold St. Nicholas, the magazine for American children that launched the writing of, among others, my great-aunt Edna St. Vincent Millay.

However, someone at the American Heraldry Society has worked himself into a curious lather about the claim that the Washington coat of arms inspired the Stars and Stripes. It argues that records on the design for the American flag don't support this belief.

To my mind, the Society's arguments are not conclusive:

• The Society accepts that George Washington used his coat of arms more than any other president has done since, so that however modest his advocates make him out to be, his love of his coat of arms being known may have influenced the many people who wanted to honor him, whether or not he himself expressed desire for the honor. Tupper's play is consistent with that scenario.

• The Society credits design of the flag to Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, on the basis that he is the only person who billed Congress for his work, asking for a quarter-casket of wine. Yes, he had some artistic ability and had spent more than a year in England, including some time with future Prime Minister Lord North. However, (1) Hopkinson's design used six-pointed stars, whereas the stars on the American flag are five-pointed mullets as in George Washington's arms, and (2) Hopkinson had the stars arranged in the form of two crosses, like the Union Jack, whereas the first approved flags had the stars arranged in three rows or a circle. The Congress demurred in paying Hopkinson's bill, partly on the basis that he claimed too much credit, since many people were involved in designing the flag. 

Does it matter? I think it does. It strengthens our attachment to the Stars and Stripes to believe that the flag honors our first President. The Washington coat of arms was used to identify the family as far back as the 12th century. An ancestor of George Washington then moved into what is now called Washington Old Hall, in County Durham, the shire immediately north of Yorkshire. William de Hertburne assumed tenancy of the Wessyngtonlands from the Bishop of Durham.  Soon after, he changed his name to William de Wessyngton. (John Wessington is likely a relative - an English Benedictine, Prior of Durham Abbey until his death in 1451.) In 1613 Sir John Mallory and Anna Eure sold the manor to the Bishop of Durham as the family moved south to Sulgrave Manor. The Wessyngton family last owned Washington Old Hall in the early 1400s when Sir William Mallory married Dionysia Tempest, daughter of Sir William Tempest and his cousin Eleanor Wessyngton. In 1936 the hall was threatened by demolition and was rescued by the "Friends of the Old Hall"; in 1957 the National Trust took it over.

The Trinity College window is one more piece of evidence for linking the Washington stars and stripes to the U.S. flag.